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W  H  Y  H  E 
CUT  THE 
W  O  M  E  X 
O  U  T 


By  FRA  ELBERTUS 

From  "  The  Philistine  " 
for  January  igoz  |»  |»  |i 


WHY   HE   CUT  THE 
WOMEN   OUT  *  *  * 

R.  PIRIE  MAC- 
DONALD,  formerly 
of  Albany,  but  now  of 
New  York  City,  is  a 
photographer.  He  calls 
himself  a  Photographic 
Artist — and  he  is.  He 
has  more  medals,  and  gets  higher  prices 
than  any  photographer  in  America.  His 
prices  are  as  high  as  a  church  steeple. 
Pine  is  the  only  man  I  ever  knew,  or 
heard  of,  who  made  a  fortune  taking  pho- 
tographs. He  has  his  limit  in  every  sav- 
ings bank  in  Albany,  owns  a  block  of 
flats,  and  sports  an  automobile  in  the 
park  with  a  bull-dog  sitting  beside  him. 
9  Pirie  of  the  Medals  does  not  take  every- 
body's picture- -he  picks  his  customers. 
As  you  enter  his  place  he  sizes  you  up 
through  a  peep-hole  from  behind  the  arras, 
and  if  your  countenance  lacks  a  trace  of 
the  classic,  Pirie  signals  his  assistant,  & 
you  are  informed  that  Mr.  MacDonald  is 
in  Europe  and  will  not  return  for  a  year 
and  a  half. 

Mr.  MacDonald's  specialty  until  recently 
has  been    Society  Belles— tall,   lissome 

t 


He    Cmt   tHe    Women   Out 

beauties,  proud  and  haughty,  with  a  won- 
drous length  of  limb  ;  these  are  the  kind 
he  liked  best.  And  so  famous  is  Mac- 
Donald  that  sitters  have  come  to  him 
from  Rochester,  Potsdam,  Chambers - 
burg,  Rahway  and  all  the  country  'round 
and  gladly  paid  the  price  of  one  hundred 
simoleons  for  one  portrait,  done  with  that 
wonderful  Rembrandtesque  effect,  and 
signed  by  the  artist.  Often  Pirie  would 
send  the  fair  one  home  to  change  her 
dress,  but  if  her  hair  needed  re-arranging 
he  always  attended  to  that  himself.  Pirie's 
skill  lay  in  posing  his  sitter  so  to  get 
the  best  result.  Usually  he  would  sit 
down  with  his  subject  &  talk  to  her  about 
this  or  that,  and  tell  her  stories,  pathetic 
or  comic,  and  all  the  time  he  would  be 
watching  her  countenance  and  debating 
in  his  mind  whether  he  would  pose  her  as 
a  Madonna,  Sappho,  Judith,  Marguerite 
or  Queen  Louise.  The  Judith-Holofernes 
pose  was  his  best,  but  it  was  often  diffi- 
cult to  bring  about  the  feeling  that  gave 
attitude.  Women  want  to  look  pretty,  and 
that  was  n't  what  Pirie  cared  for  :  he  de- 
sired chicity-chic,  go,  biff  and  eclat.  To 
this  end  he  often  had  to  resort  to  a  scheme 
to  bring  the  sitter  out  of  her  affected  self- 
consciousness.  "  Look  into  my  eyes,"  he 
a 


WHy  He    Cut  the   Women   Out 

would  sometimes  command;  and  when 
all  else  failed,  Pirie  would  assume  wrath, 
and  declare  "  Here  you — why  in  tarnation 
can't  you  do  as  I  want  you  to !  "  and  he 
would  clap  one  hand  on  the  beauty's  head 
and  the  other  under  her  chin  and  give  her 
a  few  sharp  turns  to  win'ard,  and  end  by 
administering  a  sharp  slap  athwart  her 
glutaeus  maximus,  to  straighten  her  spine. 
By  this  time  the  woman  would  be  simply 
furious,  and  speechless  with  rage.  Then 
she  would  sit  bolt  upright,  ready  to  ex- 
plode, but  she  was  not  given  time  to  go 
off,  for  Pirie  would  step  back  three  steps 
and  shout  exultantly,  "  Splendid !  Hold 
that— Hold  that ! "  and  then  he  would 
rush  forward,  kiss  her  on  the  cheek,  and 
back  again  he  would  spring  crying,  "  Hold 
that!  Hold  that!"  and  the  bulb  was 
pressed. 

And  when  all  was  over  the  artist  was  so 
penitent,  so  humble  and  beseeching  in  his 
manner,  so  profuse  in  his  explanations 
that  it  was  all  in  the  interests  of  Art,  that 
all  was  forgiven,  for  base  indeed  is  that 
woman  who  is  not  willing  to  sacrifice  her 
feelings  on  the  altar  of  Divine  Art.  And 
thus  did  Pirie  get  the  most  wonderful 
"  Salome,"  which  was  the  wonder  of  the 
Paris  Exposition,  and  was  declared  by 

3 


"WHy  He    C\it   the    Women   Out 

the  judges  to  be  the  strongest  and  most 
effective  study  in  photography  ever  ex- 
hibited. In  every  line  it  showed  such  a 
fine  feminine  rage — such  pride  &  smoth- 
ered passion- -that  people  looked  at  it  in 
amazement.  No  one  knew  that  Pirie  had 
tumbled  the  woman's  hair  in  one  fell  grab, 
and  had  thus  aroused  her  wrath,  and  then 
offered  her  insult  by  kissing  her  and  so 
brought  that  fine  look  of  burning  shame 
and  mingled  rage  to  her  proud  face. 
It  's  a  great  picture  and  it  will  pay  you  to 
stop  off  at  Albany  the  next  time  you  are 
down  that  way  and  go  to  the  State  House 
and  see  it. 

But  the  Ideal  continually  recedes,  and 
Pirie  having  the  true  instinct  of  an  artist 
was  fired  with  an  ambition  to  do  still  bet- 
ter. The  opportunity  came,  &  Pirie,  look- 
ing out  through  the  peep-hole,  beheld  a 
woman,  say  of  twenty-eight,  five  feet 
eleven,  weight  one  hundred  and  sixty. 
Her -beautiful  and  abundant  hair  was 
bleached,  and  she  had  the  proud  and  self- 
reliant  look  of  one  who  had  conquests 
that  lay  behind,  and  others,  greater  still, 
within  her  grasp.  Her  neat-fitting  jacket 
and  tailor-made  gown  showed  off  her  fine 
form  to  advantage.  The  strong  features 
were  pure  Greek. 
4 


Why    He    Cut   the   Women    Out 

Pirie  almost  screamed  with  delight,  and 
hastily  he  ordered  his  assistant  to  begone 
and  leave  the  customer  to  him.  "  Oh  ! 
now  we  shall  have  a  real  Herodias — that 
Paris  picture  will  be  only  a  tintype  to 
this.  My  !  what  a  splendid  tiger  she  is  !  " 

That  is  really  all  we  know  about  the  mat- 
ter. The  attendant  improved  the  oppor- 
tunity to  go  out  on  an  errand,  and  when 
the  neighbors  in  the  law  office  across  the 
hall  heard  the  commotion  and  rushed  out 
they  caught  the  swish  of  skirts  and  got  a 
glimpse  of  a  tailor-made  gown  going 
down  the  stairway.  Pirie  was  found,  pant- 
ing and  helpless,  in  a  corner  of  the  studio, 
with  the  black  cloth  viciously  knotted 
around  his  neck,  and  the  tripod,  camera 
and  sitter's  throne  on  top  of  him.  There 
was  a  bad  scalp  wound  extending  from 
one  ear  to  the  crown  of  his  head,  and  it 
looked  as  though  he  had  been  given  a 
walk  to  first  with  the  lens. 
Pirie  never  made  any  statement  about 
the  matter,  but  his  card  now  reads  : 

PIRIE  MACDONALD 

PHOTOGRAPHIC  ARTIST 

Portraits  of  Men  Only 


Y- 


irie  r^lacJLf  onald 
PORTRAIT   PHOTOGRAPHER 

Washington     Life     Building 
141  Broadway,  Mew  York  City 

iraits      of     Men      Only 
•iPHONEt  ISO  Cortlandt 


